Women Airforce Service Pilots in the spotlight
New museum exhibit includes artifacts, bios
OSHKOSH - Ethel Sheffler flew more than 500 hours at the controls of a variety of military aircraft during World War II but didn’t talk much about her experience as a WASP.
The quiet, self-effacing woman always said she didn’t do anything special. But after she died two years ago in Appleton at the age of 97, her daughter Linda Sheffler thought it was time others learned of the sacrifices and efforts of Women Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASP.
“After she passed away, I had a whole collection of things from my mom and because she wasn’t around to be private anymore, I could share it,” Linda Sheffler said in a phone interview from her Appleton home.
Which is why EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh has organized a new exhibit celebrating the heroism of the women who served in the WASP. The
exhibit opens Tuesday with a ribboncutting at 10 a.m. featuring Linda Sheffler and possibly other family members of WASP veterans.
Museum organizers are welcoming any families of WASPs as well as female veterans to the event on Tuesday.
More than 1,100 women were accepted into the WASP program in 1943 and 1944. All were volunteers. Thirty-eight died while serving as WASPs, including Margaret Seip, the only Wisconsin casualty.
With a critical shortage of qualified aviators, WASPs ferried thousands of planes from American factories to the coasts for eventual use in combat. They also towed training targets, flew cargo and worked as test pilots but were prohibited from combat missions. Their role was to free up as many male pilots as possible for overseas duty.
However, they were civilians and not part of the military, which meant they bought their own uniforms and gear. WASPs killed in plane crashes were not
“What I hope young people get out of this exhibit is: Never underestimate how cool your grandparents were.”
given military funerals, and their families had to pay for their bodies to be returned home for burial.
An attempt to make WASP part of the military was defeated in Congress in 1944, which meant the women did not qualify for veterans’ benefits or honors.
Not until 1977 were WASPs officially recognized as veterans. In 2009, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
“What’s most inspiring about this story is these women worked very hard. There were a lot of obstacles in their way,” said EAA museum curator Ben Page.
Curating an exhibit was not easy because there are relatively few artifacts.
Since WASP pilots purchased their own gear, memorabilia is most likely in the possession of families like Ethel Sheffler’s, said EAA Aviation Museum programs coordinator Chris Henry.
The exhibit, which will be on display for a year, features cases filled with goggles, uniforms, insignia, maps, photos, flight logbooks and the Walt Disney Studios-designed WASP emblem. Ethel Sheffler’s Congressional Gold Medal, instrument pilot certificates, logbooks and other artifacts are prominently displayed as are flight wings and a kneeboard with navigation chart donated to the EAA Aviation Museum in 1994 by WASP Betty Jane Williams.
On the walls are large photos of WASPs in action, maps of their duty stations and photos and bios of contemporary female pilots who, in a way, stand on the shoulders of the World War II pilots who paved the way for them to fly in combat.
“The roughest thing is these women were high-performance test pilots and after the war, they couldn’t get jobs as commercial pilots,” said Henry.
Visitors to the WASP exhibit can also see some of the planes they flew during World War II on display in the museum’s Eagle Hangar, including a P-38 Lightning, PQ-14 Cadet and P-51 Mustang.
Ethel Sheffler, who was born in 1921, saw a newspaper ad in 1936 for sightseeing plane rides. She lived on a farm in Heyworth, Illinois, spent $1 on that first flight and was hooked.
“She didn’t want to be on the ground anymore,” said her daughter.
After high school graduation, she worked and saved her money until she could pay for flight lessons in July 1942. When the WASP formed the next year, Ethel Sheffler applied. By then, she had both her private and commercial pilot licenses and had logged 173 flight hours.
After training at Avenger Field in Texas, Ethel Sheffler was deployed to Gunter Field in Alabama, where she ferried planes and worked as a flight instructor.
Though Ethel Sheffler was patriotic and wanted to do her part in the war effort, joining the WASP was a way to continue her passion, her daughter said.
“She thought it was an opportunity to fly and fly with less limitations, to fly amazing aircraft,” Linda Sheffler said.
Ethel Sheffler served in the WASP from December 1943 until the group quietly disbanded in December 1944, accumulating more than 500 hours as a WASP in BT-13 Valiant and T-6 trainers as well as Boeing Stearman PT-17s.
In 1950, she traveled to Brazil where she met her husband Ira on a blind date. They had three daughters before splitting up a decade later. Ethel Sheffler worked in a printing plant and as a flight instructor and taught all of her daughters to fly. In fact, she insisted her children earn their pilot’s licenses before their driver’s licenses.
Ethel Sheffler flew until she was 83. Linda Sheffler thinks her mom would be excited by the attention of the museum exhibit, thrilled that World War II female pilots are getting recognition.
“What I hope young people get out of this exhibit is,” said Henry, “never underestimate how cool your grandparents were.”